Sampling device



March 30, 1965 HIROSHI HIGAMI ETAL 3,175,402

SAMPLING DEVICE Filed July 10, 1961 Hiroshi 'Higaml;

7bmokl Marsuo I N VE N TORS BY Mmm a M/ M ATTORN E YS 3,175,402 SAMPLINGDEVICE Hiroshi Higami, Musashino, Tokyo, and Tomoki Matsuo, Naogata,Japan, assignors to Yawata Iron and Steel (30., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, acorporation of Japan Filed July 10, 1961, Ser. No. 123,056 1 Claim. (Cl.73-421) This invention relates to a simpling device for substances beingconveyed in a conveying system for powdery, granular or lumpysubstances. It is important to the stabilization and maintenance of thequality of a product to correctly detect the quality characteristics ofits raw material during all the steps of production. In order tocorrectly detect the quality characteristics of such raw material, it isnecessary first to take samples from the raw material correctly. Forthis purpose, there have been devised various sampling methods and therehave been used various sampling devices. However, such sampling devicesare required to have the following various characteristics:

(1) They should cause no partiality in sampling.

(2) They should be able to sample the raw material uniformly over thewhole width of the flow of the material.

(3) They should cause neither leakage nor retain any part of the samplein them.

(4) They should be easily set.

(5) They should be durable.

(6) They should be easy and cheap to make.

Conventional main sampling systems have mostly used a galley type or abucket type device.

However, in the galley type, the conveyed material falling from one beltto another at a transfer point between conveying belts is cut acrosssubstantially vertically to the dropping direction of the sample byusing a cutter so as to take the sample. In the bucket type, a bucket ismoved in the sample dropping zone. A large space is required in thedirection of the fall of the sample in setting either of them. It isimpossible to set such device directly in the transfer point between afirst and second conveying belts in the conveying system.

Even if such a conventional sampling device is installed by taking up alarge space at the transfer point between the conveying belts, in thegalley type, due to the large drop between the conveying belts, the wearon the second conveying belt will be so large that the period of normaluse will be greatly shortened and, in the bucket type, because thebuckets of the sampling device are limited, when the total width of theconveying belt for the raw material to be sampled is large, it will bedifiicult to take samples from the whole flow. When the amount ofmaterial conveyed is large, the sample taken will overflow the buckets.Further, in the galley type,

ecause the sample taken is collected at the lower part of the firstconveying belt, impurities will be likely to be present in the sampleand therefore account of such impurities must be taken. In such asampling device, when the raw material contains much water or is highlyadhesive, the cutter which is the principal part of the sampler will beclogged with the sample and the sampling wil lbecome impossible.Therefore, although it is an automatic sampling device, it must bealways watched. There is another known method wherein the sample isscraped or scooped up from the main conveyer. However, it is noteffective in taking samples from ores containing lumps and no precisesampling can be obtained by using it.

The present invention has been made to eliminate the defects of theabove described various sampling devices.

An object of the present invention is to provide a sampling device whichcan be placed in any existing con- United States Patent 0 3,175,4fi2Patented Mar. 30, 1965 veying system without needing a large space at atransfer point between conveying belts in order to take samples.

Another object of the invention is to provide a sampling device whichneeds no vertical space than is necessary for transferring material fromone conveyor to the next.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a samplingdevice wherein samples can be easily taken from the whole flowirrespective of the amount of the raw material conveyed and even thesamples of even the raw materials containing large lumps or much Wateror which are high in an adhesiveness will not clog the device.

With these objects in view, the present invention relates to a samplingdevice characterized by comprising a moving means which reciprocateslaterally over the whole width of a conveying belt for raw materials tobe sampled at the terminal part of the belt and a sampling and conveyingmeans hung on said moving means.

Thesampling device of the present invention is set on the moving meanswhich reciprocates laterally over the whole width of the first conveyingbelt at the terminal part of the belt. Therefore, even'if the width ofthe first conveying belt is large, it will be possible to easily takesamples over the whole width of the belt.

Because the present device is always driven to convey samples out of thestream of conveyed materials in the sample receiving direction by adriving means having a belt conveyor on belt bearing rollers, it can beset adjacent to the first conveying belt. Further, because the samplestaken while the conveyed material is dropping from the first conveyingbelt are collected in turn in a sample receiver from a sampledischarging end, even raw materials containing large lumps or much wateror which are high in adhesiveness will not stay in the sampling deviceto clog it.

As described above, according to the present invention, the samplingdevice is mounted on a moving means and the conveying means in which abelt conveyor is used is provided to collect the samples in the samplereceiver. Therefore, the device of the present invention can be easilyincorporated in most existing conveying equipment.

The accompanying drawings shall be briefly explained.

FIGURE 1 is a side elevation view of a sampling device according to thepresent invention positioned in a conveying system, and

FIGURE 2 is a front elevation view of the device of FIG. 1.

An embodiment of the sampling device according to the present inventionshall be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

In the drawings, 6 is a first conveying belt and "I is a secondconveying belt. In this embodiment, the raw material is fed with anordinary drop from the first conveying belt 6 to the second conveyingbelt.

A sampling device 1 to take and convey out of the falling materialsamples is hung on a moving carriage .3 by a supporting frame 8 so as toextend through the path of the falling raw material as it falls from theterminal part of the first conveying belt. The sampling device has onthe sides fixed side plates 2 supported on a supporting frame 10 andhaving adjusting threaded rods 15 thereon. Adjustable side plates 2' foradjusting the sampling opening in the sampling device are positioned onthe threaded rods 15 and extend above the upper ends of said side plates2. Such adjustable plates 2 are pivotable about axes parallel to thecollecting conveyor 12 so that the sampling opening may be adjusted byrotating the adjusting threaded rods 15. Therefore, when the upper edgesof the plates 2 are inclined inwardly, the lower edges of saidadjustable plates 2 will open outwardly so as to protect the side of thesampling device 1 from the alt 5,4

falling powdery and granular substances. The sampling device 1 has asmall belt conveyor 12, a motor pulley 9 provided at one end of thesupporting frame 10 and belt supporting rollers 11 rotatably mounted inthe supporting frame 10. v

The moving carriage 3 is movably mounted on a frame 16 to move at rightangles to the direction .of the first conveying belt and is connected bya cable '13 to a driving device 5. The driving device is made toreciprocate the carriage 3 by means of a limit switch or a timer deviceor may be interlocked with an automatic weighing machine. In theembodiment shown, there is used a cable drawing device but the presentinvention is not limited to this type of drive for the carriage 3. Asample receiver 4 is provided at the discharging end of conveyer 12 forthe samples which are taken.

In operation, a part of the raw material falling onto the secondconveying belt 7 from the first conveying belt 6 will fall into thesampling device 1 as the sampling device is moved reciprocally by thedriving device 5. The sampling body I hung on the moving carriage 3 willcontinuously take samples impartially over the whole width of the firstconveying belt 6. The samples taken are sent to the sample receiver 4 bythe conveyor 12 on the sampling body 1.

What we claim is:

The claim in a conveyor system having a material conveyor moving in onlyone direction for conveying powdery, granular and lumpy substances, saidone direction being fixed, said material conveyor having a width, thatimprovement comprising a sampling device, said sampling devicecomprising a carriage positioned immediately adjacent the end of thematerial conveyor and movable back and forth across the entire width ofthe material conveyor transversely of the direction of movement of thematerial conveyor, and a collecting conveyor mounted on said carriageand having a width less than the Width of the material conveyor andmovable in a direction transversely to the direction of back and forthmovement of said carriage, said collecting conveyor having one endimmediately beneath the end of the material conveyor and conveyingmaterial away from beneath the end of said material conveyor, saidsampling device further having side plates adjacent said collectingconveyor and extending about the level of said collecting conveyor andpivoted about axes parallel to the direction of movement of saidcollecting conveyor, and means for pivoting said side plates andretaming them in a pivoted position, whereby back and forth movement ofsaid carriage moves said collecting conveyor through the stream ofconveyed material falling from the material conveyor and the materialcollected on said collecting conveyor is conveyed out of the stream offalling material and said side plates can be freely pivoted over theedges of the collecting conveyor to adjust the sizeof the openingpresented to the falling material and the bottoms of said side plateswill protect the sides of the sampling device from the falling materialwhich is not collected.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,431,216 10/22Cameron 19897 2,277,416 3/42 Rutten 198-101 2,316,537 4/43 Hendrickson73421 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,078,547 8/57 Germany.

SAMUEL F, COLEMAN, Primary Examiner.

WILLIAM B. LA BORDE, Examiner.

